Code Geass R3: Two in One
by Yamamoto Ameko
Summary: Twelve years old, a holder of Geass, and without memories, Midori Neko has always wanted something more than the life of a student. She wants to change things. And now the war in the north is coming to Japan... and everything is focused on her.
1. Prologue The Realm of Geass

Prologue

They stood at the edge of the stone floor, gazing out over a world of rosy clouds. He held her hand gently in his, the only hand that would be with him for as long as he would live; for he would never die.

"Lelouch," She whispered, turning her calm yellow eyes on him. He met her gaze evenly, scarlet bird insignias flaming where his irises had once blazed violet. One slender eyebrow lifted, "You have done a great thing."

Lelouch smirked. He didn't need to say anything. She wouldn't accept modesty, she would rebuke arrogance. Such was C.C.

"This world… you have raised a strong child, Lelouch." She looked back out over the clouds, "I hope you realize… you've spoiled it, in a way. You've taken such good care of it, the child can never live without Zero."

Lelouch blinked in surprise. This was not the sort of thing C.C. usually said. He opened his mouth to object.

"Suzaku-"

"Will do well as Zero, in times of peace." C.C. countered his thoughts, "But he does not have your devious mind." She turned to fix him again in her gaze. But now there was passion; none of her usual tranquility was reflected there. Only intensity, "Humanity will be humanity, Lelouch. No matter how many times we defeat evil, more will rise with the next generation. This peace will not last. And then we will need a Zero; a Geass; with a mind meant for war."

Lelouch sighed, smiling again. This time, it was a soft expression. Not arrogant, as his smirk had been. Calm, soothing, accepting.

"Another Zero will come." He whispered, turning his back on her and pacing along between the stone pillars, "There will always be heroes, as long as there are villains."

"No," She whispered, catching his sleeve. He stopped, spinning to face her, shocked. Her gaze was like he had never seen it before; angry, determined, confident. He couldn't decide, "No, Lelouch."

Slowly, she stepped closer to him, stretching up until her face was barely an inch away from his. He could feel her warmth against him, and blushed at her nearness.

"_You _are the only true Zero. And as long as the world needs Zero, he will be there."


	2. Chapter One Ashford Anew

Chapter One

Chapter One

It was the sun on her cheek that woke her that day. It was uncomfortable; half of her face warm in the light, half of it chilled by the dark. She stirred, trying to move out of the light, determined not to be roused.

And then something came flying through the air. She cried out in shock, and it took her a moment to realize that whatever it was hadn't been meant to hurt her, but rouse her. Indeed, a pillow could do little damage. She opened her eyes and hunted out the source of the attack. She glared at her roommate, her violet eye glinting demonically while the deep brown one sucked the other girl in, paralyzing her.

"What?" Neko hissed, rolling slowly into a sitting position and ruffling the wandering strands of her silky brown hair.

"Time to wake up!" Cassandra cried, her leafy green eyes curving with her bright smile. In an instant, she was on her feet, pulling on Neko, trying to wake her up, "Breakfast will be over if we don't hurry!"

Neko groaned, throwing Cassie off and rolling back under the covers.

"Not hungry," She muttered.

Something jumped on the end of her bed and started bouncing.

"C'mon, Neko-chan!" Cassie cried, her leaps carrying her ever closer to the drop at the end, "You're a bad lia-!"

Her voice dropped in a squeal as her foot slipped and she plummeted off the edge of Neko's four-poster. She landed with a heavy thud, crying out in pain. Neko blinked twice into her pillow, then rolled calmly out of the bed and crossed the room to the neatly folded pile of clothes which was her uniform. She didn't even glance at Cassie.

She dressed easily, each movement graceful, pointedly ignoring Cassandra as she bounded; unhurt by her fall; around Neko. Silently, Neko smoothed down the pleats of her skirt, and then reached out and caught Cassie's arm, jerking her to a halt. Wordlessly, she began to unbutton the front of Cassie's carelessly donned jacket. Cassie squealed in protest, trying to jerk out of Neko's hands, but Neko held fast.

"You missed a button." Neko mumbled, her mind still too fogged to be chatty, "Decorum is important for the student council."

"C'mon, Neko-chan!" Cassie cried, leaping away before Neko could redo the top two buttons, "I'm _hungry_!"

Neko sighed, slowly shaking her head as she picked up her school bag and walked towards the door. It was open well before she reached it, and Cassie was already half way down the hall by the time she closed it behind her.

"Hurry up, Neko-chan!" She cried, stopping at the top of the stairs to wave eagerly before dashing down them. Neko sighed, shaking her head as her roommate's squeal told her that Cassie had, as usual, tumbled down the last few steps.

"Does she ever get tired?" Neko barely twitched at the voice behind her. She had known he was there, waiting for her to speak to him. He always was. He had to learn; Neko didn't start conversations.

"Never." Neko mumbled, leaning briefly against the wall to steady the spinning in her head. Katsu showed no concern. She was always like this in the morning.

"I'm sorry." He said simply, brushing past her and moving on down the stairs. She watched him go, reluctant to move away from the support of the wall. His movements were easy, flowing, unhindered by friction or gravity. The movements of a competent fighter; the captain of the Sword Fighting Club.

All around her, other students were pouring out of their dorms. She shoved off of the wall, heading towards the stairs as noise rose all around her. She reached the bottom just in time for the rest of the school to start flooding down them, her long legs carrying her easily out the front doors and into the blinding sun.

The emerald lawns were already bustling with students, all heading towards the dining hall. She hesitated for a moment as hunger rumbled in her stomach, and then turned away from the circular metal building and moved off towards the little cottage in the garden; the headquarters for the student council.

She opened the door, ignoring her hunger as she stepped into the morning shadows and closed it behind her. Within, she could see only vague silhouettes. A table, long enough to seat six people. Six chairs in various disorderly positions; lying on their backs, thrown up on the table, shoved into the wall. She sighed, shaking her head, wondering what the others had been doing last night in her absence. She could only begin to guess. Wordlessly, she moved over the armchair in the furthest corner, grabbing her book from its designated spot on the bookshelf as she passed. She folded back into the chair, laid her head against the wall behind her, and closed her eyes.

In a matter of seconds, she was asleep.

Someone tripping over one of the fallen chairs woke her to the blinding light. The sun had risen now, almost all the way. She could tell by its brightness. Neko grimaced; she had missed club activities, not that she had any to attend. She was just glad it was Saturday; no classes before lunch. Which meant that the one who had just stumbled into the cottage was a member of the student council, coming to clean up before their noon tea. Neko didn't stir, the book held loosely in the hand that hung off the side of her chair, hoping that whomever it was would have the sense to leave her lying there, and she could go back to sleep.

Suddenly, a pair of arms engulfed her. She acted without thinking, bringing her book up sharply and smacking her attacker on the side of the head. He stumbled back, gasping in pain. But not before she got a good sense of the person's aura. Bright, glittering with energy, carefree.

"What do you want, Tristen?" She asked darkly, slowly opening her multi-colored eyes to glare at him. Then she blinked. He sat on the floor in front of her, rubbing the side of his head with one hand. In the other, he held out a muffin.

"You weren't there at breakfast." He explained, smiling. Neko blinked again. His smile was as idiotic as ever. Silently, she reached out and took the muffin and began to nibble at it.

Outside, she could feel more than hear students moving around, heading once more towards the dining hall; this time for lunch. Their auras carried varying degrees of happiness; none of them seemed at all upset. All of them were remembering what had happened during club that day. Most were laughing; Rachel, the student council president, came up in their thoughts and conversations. She frowned, wondering what the woman had gotten them all into this time.

Carefully, ignoring Tristen as she nibbled at the muffin, she began to tuck away the sixth sense; her Geass; which had been exploring the world in her sleep without her permission. It was annoying, to always know everything that was going on around you. And it was inconvenient; difficult to hide; when she started answering people's thoughts instead of their spoken questions, or talking about a thing in their past that they hadn't told her.

Just before her power was safely boxed into the back of her mind; just as the last of the muffin disappeared into her mouth; the door opened and the rest of the student council came pouring in.

"Morning, Neko-chan!" Cassandra cried, bounding over to her and pulling her out of her armchair, only to knock her down again with a fierce hug. Neko took the assault calmly, accustomed by now to her overenthusiastic roommate, awake enough not to be too violent. However, she did rap the girl's head gently with her knuckles.

"It's too hot to be cuddling, Cassie." She muttered. The girl giggled, leaping back off to embrace Tristen. She didn't seem to notice that he was sprawled across the floor with a red mark on his forehead.

"You're in your usual good humor this morning, Neko." Rachel observed, stepping over to give Neko a light hug before practically dancing out of the way of her elbow.

"You could really hurt someone doing that." Someone else whispered.

Neko turned, catching the eye of a small, soft-voiced boy. Ootori Haru. He flinched as her glare found him.

A hand clapped down on her shoulder. She turned, meeting Katsu's flinty gaze as evenly as anyone could.

"Don't scare them so early, Neko." He murmured, his hand sliding away as he went to take his seat at the table. Neko sighed, shaking back a few strands of her long, unruly hair. She turned back to Haru. A tiny smile cracked the stoic mask for which she was so well known.

"Sorry, Haru." She murmured, reaching out and patting his tousled blonde hair, "Just woke up."

He grinned brightly, "No problem!"

The sound of wood on wood shattered Neko's narrowed awareness. She turned sharply to see Rachel pounding her gavel on the scarred corner of the table.

"This session is called to order!" She shouted, her teeth almost blinding. Even with her Geass tucked away, Neko could feel the air prickling with infective excitement. A small smile on her face, she moved to take her seat at Rachel's side, glancing across the table at Katsu. He, too, smiled.

"What's on the table today, Prez?" Tristen chuckled as he sat down next to Katsu.

Rachel looked at Neko, who lifted the folder which had been set at her place and began shifting through the papers within.

"The horseback riding club wants a bigger budget." She murmured, just barely loud enough for the others to hear, "They can't afford any more horses, but there aren't enough to support the students who've joined."

"They're all rich!" Tristen cried, throwing his hands in the air, "Why don't they pay for it themselves?"

The paperclip from Neko's folder hit him sharply between the eyes, and he tumbled back out of the chair. The others dissolved into laughter. Neko turned back, burying herself in the papers, trying not to laugh herself. Still, she could feel her lips twitching, tugged up at the corners by the irresistible vibes in the room. It was almost sad to know that she, with her Geass, was the only one who could really appreciate each individual's energy.

It took almost ten minutes for everyone to heave themselves back onto their chairs. By that time, Neko had read all the way through her sheaf of papers.

_No wonder we never get anything done. _She thought, shaking her head as Rachel; still laughing; pounded her gavel again.

"Back to business!" She cried, grabbing her side to try to stop the giggles. A couple seconds later, she became suddenly serious, "But Tristen's right. We can't just keep giving them money. So… any suggestions?"

"Tell them to go to hell?" Tristen suggested lightly. This time, it was Katsu who threw the paperclip.

"They could sell some of their tack." Haru suggested nervously, "I mean, they already have way too much."

"That's a good idea." Rachel mused, setting her chin in her hand and balancing on her elbow. Her lips pushed out in a pout, and Neko couldn't help but laugh. Rachel's blue eyes flicked to her, "Do _you _have any ideas?" She asked, gaze narrowing. Neko's laugh had been barely more than a puff of air, and still Rachel had taken offence. Neko shook her head in exasperation, crossing her arms on the table.

"A fundraiser?" She suggested mildly, twirling a tack across the table. Rachel cocked her head, considering. The silence stretched on, everyone watching Rachel.

When no one spoke for almost a full minute, Neko sighed and pushed her chair back from the table. She moved back to her chair, picking up the book she had hit Tristen with and sitting with a pointed huff.

"I think it's a good idea!" Cassie cried instantly. Neko put the book down again, returning to the table.

"Right," Rachel murmured, picking her pencil out of her long red hair and jabbing the lead into the paper, checking the point off of their very long agenda. She grimaced, flipping through three pages of the list, "Is there anything someone would like to bring to the table, before we use all our time up on this?" She asked, tossing the clipboard away. It landed with a dusty thud on Neko's armchair.

Katsu chuckled, turning to meet Neko's eye. They both nodded. They were thinking the same thing.

_This is why we never get anything done. _

The meeting went downhill from there; from suggestions for a student council field trip, to laughing on the floor, to Tristen making a pointed remark about how Neko looked in her skirt, to Neko hitting him over the head with Rachel's gavel. And then, everyone was laughing, throwing crumpled paper at each other, tackling one another and trying to tickle their victims.

_Yes, _Neko thought, laughing as Cassandra tried to clamber onto her back and pull her off of Tristen, _this is why we never get anything done. And I wouldn't have it any other way. _

By the time the bell rang, they were all flushed and more than a little disheveled. Neko's silky brown hair, which tended to separate itself into gravity-defying strands as it was, seemed to writhe about her head. Always, it floated downwards to frame her waist. But it seemed to take its own strange, twisting path getting there.

They quickly gathered their things, heading in a crowd for the door. Tristen tugged lightly on a flyaway strand of her hair. She slapped him in the back of the head, smirking as he staggered away, across the field after Cassandra and Haru. Neko watched them head for the mathematics building before turning towards the history building, only to find that Katsu and Rachel had waited for her.

"Hey, Neko-chan!" Rachel cried as Neko joined them. The trio started off towards their classes, "I was wondering if you'd like to join us tomorrow!"

"What are you doing?" Neko asked, glancing uneasily at Katsu. He shrugged. Clearly, he didn't know any more than she did. It made Neko even more nervous. Rachel could come up with some pretty far-fetched ideas.

"I'd just thought we'd go check out that new mall on the east end." Rachel waved her hand through the air carelessly. Neko and Katsu both sighed in relief.

"I'd love to go." Neko confirmed, if only to make sure that Rachel didn't change plans.

"Great!" Rachel cried, skipping in place before turning and heading away towards her building, "Meet me at the subway at ten!"

And then she took off, running. Neko watched her go, suppressing her laughter as she and Katsu headed on towards their class.

It took Neko a minute to realize that something was wrong. Katsu wasn't normally a very talkative person, but he generally said _something _when it was only the two of them. Now he walked in pensive silence, his anxious aura prickling up and down Neko's spine as she opened her Geass, trying to read his thoughts. All she could pick up was… _not there. Please, not there. Why do they always choose the _worst_ places…_

"Something wrong, Katsu?" Neko asked, her strange eyes narrowing. She had no idea what his thoughts were about, and she certainly couldn't ask him. He was a defensive person; he might murder her in her sleep, if he found out she could read his mind.

"I just… don't think you should go." He muttered, avoiding her eyes, "Either of you."

Neko blinked in surprise, "Why?"

"Because… there've been rumors. Something's going to happen in the tunnels… sometime. And… I can't be there tomorrow." Finally, he looked up at her, the impermeable depths of his black eyes drawing her in, "I don't want you girls there alone."

For a moment, Neko was almost sucked up by his obvious concern. And then she gave a short, startled laugh, and shook her head.

"Come on, Katsu!" She snorted, tucking her book more securely under her arm, "It's been five _years _since the revolution ended! You make it sound like we're going to be attacked by the Black Knights!"

He looked away, flushing. She patted him lightly on the back.

"Don't worry," She murmured, "I'll take my rod. And I won't let her out of my sight for a second."

He gave her a grateful glance, and she smiled. This was his vulnerable side; the part of him that only she would ever see. The side that worried about others first, never about himself.

"Just… make sure you get out of there before five, alright?" He muttered.

She frowned at him, wondering what could possibly worry him so much. But when he looked up at her, questioning, she nodded her agreement. It shouldn't be a problem to set his worries at ease; she wasn't too fond of shopping, anyways.

The afternoon passed quickly, the classes blowing by like the snapshots of her life that they were. She heard nothing that the teachers said, never raised her hand. She leaned her cheek against the heel of her hand and closed her eyes, sleeping. And yet, she was the school valedictorian. Cassandra called it her gift. Neko didn't bother to think about it.

Still, she was exhausted by the time she returned to her room. She had slept half the day, her mind was still clear, and her body still perfectly active. But she was tired. Bored stiff. Nothing new ever happened in her world; nothing exciting. Blessed with Geass, she still couldn't find a way to make a difference in the world.

Cassandra followed her into the room, leaping up to bounce on her bed. Absentmindedly, Neko's eyes tracked her movement, even as she slumped against the wall and snatched up a magazine. She glanced in disgust at its pages.

Five years had gone by since the death of the Demon King, Lelouch Vi Britannia. Five short years under the rule of Empress Nunnally and the miracle-worker Zero. Five years since Neko's memories had begun. And only three of them had been peaceful.

She _knew _nothing of war, because the day Lelouch had died had been the day she woke, lying in an alley, already twelve years old, with no memory of who she was or where she had come from. She had named herself "Neko", the Japanese word for cat, the first word she had ever heard anyone speak. And she had wandered onto the commons of Ashford Academy. The principal; Millay; had taken her in. That was where her life began. At the beginning of a time of peace.

But three years ago, _someone _had started attacking things. It had started with small colonies, secluded islands far from the centers of the Britannian empire. Slowly, contacts were lost. The people disappeared. When search parties were sent out, they found the survivors wandering, shocked, their ability to speak stolen by their terror, across baking wastelands.

The fighting had spread inwards, across the globe. War was raging in Russia, already. War in which no one would allow the public to see who their enemies were. The world was frightened. Riots, panics, all of them had occurred in Japan; so far away from the fighting, and yet so very near. The Black Knights had managed to put the revolts down… but Neko could feel the brewing storm.

Soon, their citizens would be the ones at risk.

She barely glanced at the magazine in her hands, the corner of her violet eye still fixed on Cassandra. The girl had stopped jumping; now she was sitting on the floor, doodling randomly. Neko couldn't help but smile; Cassie would never admit that she couldn't draw. But she couldn't.

"Hey, Neko-chan?" She called, pushing her lip out in a pout. Neko sighed softly, as she knew Cassie would expect, and lay her magazine on the floor next to her. Concealing a gentle smile, she moved to Cassandra's side.

"What is it?" She asked, stroking Cassie's caramel ringlets out of her eyes. The girl tilted her head into Neko's touch.

"What do you think they're fighting?"

Neko didn't have to ask what she meant.

"How could I know?" Neko murmured, picking up one of Cassandra's pencils and swiping it briskly over a piece of blank paper. She drew as she mused, not sure what might be taking form beneath her hand, "They won't show us who the enemy is. All we ever see are the Knightmares."

"Where do you think they got them?" Cassie whispered, setting her chin on the floor and kicking her feet up behind her, "The Knightmares?"

Neko shrugged, "I've never seen the models before. We don't make them that big, or that fast. We don't know how. The enemy is a genius."

Suddenly, Cassie flipped onto her back to stare up into her roommate's multicolored eyes. Neko stopped drawing.

"Do you think it could be the Demon King?"

Neko blinked at the thought, and her dark brows sank slightly. It wasn't possible… and yet, the energy in the air… it was familiar somehow… from a time before her life had begun…

"No." She whispered, but there was little conviction in her voice, "He's dead, Cassie. Zero killed him."

Zero… the man everyone had thought had betrayed them… had used the Black Knights to become the Demon King. When Zero had killed the Demon, people had decided that the real Zero must have been captured, shut away while Lelouch took over and used the name. But what if it was the other way around? What if the Zero they knew, the one still alive, was the imposter…?

She shook her head sharply, breaking the trail of thought. It wasn't possible. Zero had led them well at Empress Nunally's side. He was doing his best with the Black Knights now, trying to stop the force in Russia from spreading. He was brilliant; he had shown that. There was no man brilliant enough to mimic the actions of the true Zero.

Slowly, she glanced down at the picture, and caught her breath in shock. She had drawn him. She knew that without a doubt. She had drawn a perfect picture of the Demon King.

Surely, he couldn't still be alive. Surely, the Zero they knew and loved was the real thing… the hero of Japan would never lie to his people…

But the doubt nagged at the back of her head. The doubt that, if the real Zero were still alive, the enemy wouldn't even have made it this far.


	3. Chapter Two Children of Geass

Chapter Two

The Sunday sun rose brightly, waking Neko once more with its warmth. She groaned in irritation, turning over in her bed, stuffing her face into her pillow to hide from the scarlet light that filtered through her sleepy eyelids.

And then she was knocked clear from her bed by a flying body. She cried out in shock, twisting around, still half-conscious, to grab at her attacker's hair. She pulled, hard. And then she flinched.

The scream was definitely Cassie's.

She sighed, pushing herself into an upright position as she released the silky curls from her grasp. Cassie had curled into a ball in her lap, sobbing softly. Gentle, Neko brushed through her curls, searching for blood.

"Idiot." She muttered, "I was asleep."

"I… thought you were…" Cassie didn't continue.

Neko brushed a hand through her own tussled brown hair, and then reached forwards and picked Cassie off the ground. She laid the breathless girl on the bed from which they had just fallen, and moved over to the dresser. There was no need for uniforms today.

Cassandra's soft sobs echoed around her as she pulled on a pair of boot-cut jeans and a slim v-neck. She was in the midst of tying back her streaming hair with a silk ribbon when she realized something sounded odd about Cassandra's apparent pain. She paused.

"You're not fooling me, Cassie." She said darkly. As she had expected, Cassie jerked upright, her face glowing with humor. Neko closed her eyes and shook her head. In truth, Cassie _had _almost fooled her. She was useless when she locked up her Geass, "If you're coming on the shopping trip, you'd better get dressed. It's already nine thirty. We have half an hour to get to the subway."

In an instant, the girl had leapt off of Neko's bed and bounded out the door.

"You can't go in your nightgown!" Neko shouted after her. There was no response.

Sighing in exasperation, she turned to her bedside table and snatched up the belt lying there. She strapped it around her slim hips, her hands lingering on the halter attached to the left side. It was just a thin cylinder of leather, holding what appeared to be a ten inch metal rod. But Neko knew the feel of the weapon, knew exactly where the switch was which would extend the three foot blades on each end. She never left the Academy's commons without it.

She started out the door, but something caught her eye, and she stopped. Whirling around, one hand on her rod, she stared at the window. A small frown crossed her face. She had been certain of it… certain that someone had been there…

Shaking her head briskly, she turned and hurried on, hoping that her insanity wouldn't take too much of a hold before they got to the mall.

She didn't bother with breakfast, instead heading straight off the commons and into the city. She brought nothing with her; except the weapon on her belt and the wallet in her hand. She didn't own much to begin with.

The station was noisy; nothing like the chatter of the Ashford dining hall, but enough to irritate Neko. She hated noise that had no point. Hated anything that had no point. Like her life. She had no purpose; no memory of what she might have been doing for twelve years. Only the basic knowledge one gains in their first five years of school had remained in her memory, and since then she had gained only what she could learn from her new school.

The thoughts made her heart race, her blood boil. She closed her ears, closed her eyes, trying to cut the noise and the crowds out of her mind and maintain her calm. _What am I doing here? _She caught herself getting ready to scream, and choked it back.

"Neko-chan?"

She froze, slowly opening her mismatched eyes to find Rachel peering anxiously at her. Neko was relieved to find that her face was still, somehow, composed.

"Good morning, President." She greeted Rachel, trying not to let her voice shake.

"You alright? You looked kinda… pissed…"

"Fine." Neko whispered, glancing around, "Did Cassie show up?"

Rachel pointed calmly to a bench on the station wall. The girl was sitting on it, slumped over, fast asleep. Neko sighed.

"She always tires herself out."

"She'll be fine, as soon as we get out of the station." Rachel giggled, starting to lead the way over to their sleeping friend. Neko knew she was right; subways always made Cassandra sleepy.

"Do you have the tickets?" Neko asked even as she lifted her roommate's tiny frame into her arms.

"Yup, got them before you even arrived."

"How did you know I would bring her?" Neko asked, not really surprised.

"You two never go anywhere alone!" Rachel giggled, passing Neko two slips of paper, "Don't loose them!"

They stepped up to the edge of the tracks and waited in silence. As the train screeched away around the corner, the station fell suddenly quiet. The stench of fuel faded away, and left the faint smell of water streaming down the mold-slicked stone walls. Discarded trash fluttered to the ground around them, and they waited in the sudden peace, almost alone in the tunnels. Alone, except for a mother and her two small children.

Almost oblivious to Cassie's weight in her arms, Neko found herself watching the girls as they played around their watchful escort. She couldn't help but wonder if she had once been like that; small, carefree, with a family that cared for her. She knew she would never remember. She would never know. And that made her heart ache.

She was so absorbed in watching the playful twins, she didn't notice the others that had come pouring down into the tunnels. Not until it was too late; they were already surrounded.

The sound of the train screaming up the tracks could not overwhelm that of hundreds of guns, all being simultaneously set. She whirled at the same moment as Rachel, shaking Cassandra to wake her. But what Neko saw stopped even her mind.

Children. Hundreds and hundreds of children, standing in a semi-circle around them, guns loaded and aimed at Neko. Children with empty eyes burning with the scarlet bird, like the one that rose in her own demonic violet eye, when she pulled her Geass all the way out. Like the eyes of the Demon King, Lelouch Vi Britannia. The eyes of Geass.

In a moment, Neko understood. Someone had found out; about her power, about her existence. Someone wanted her dead.

Without thinking, she turned and shoved Cassie into Rachel's arms.

"Use the tracks." She urged, pushing her friends back towards the edge, "There's a ladder a little ways up. Use it. Get out."

"But… the train!"

"If you hurry you can make it out before it comes!" Neko snapped, shoving her again. This time, Rachel tottered at the edge. Ignoring it, Neko turned to the mother, clutching her terrified children, "Go! Take them and go! Follow my friends up the tracks!"

"What about you, Nek-" Cassie began, suddenly wide awake and struggling out of Rachel's arms.

"Don't worry about me!" Neko snapped, pulling her rod from its halter.

For she knew. The Children of Geass would not pursue her friends; they would only follow her. They were only here to kill her.

Rachel hesitated. The children raised their guns.

"MOVE!" Neko cried, extending the blades on her weapon. Rachel and Cassie obeyed, leaping over the edge and taking off down the tracks as the roar of the train grew louder.

But even the train was drowned out by the sudden shower of bullets.

Neko had always been a good fighter. She had learned at the very beginning that her rod could stop bullets. But not so many; not all at once. The first few, she deflected. And then pain like flames ripped up her spine and down her limbs, exploding in her head. She felt her body jerking with the hail of metal bits. And then she was falling, smashing into the tile floor, her head barely an inch from the ledge.

Even through the pain, she could feel the train scream by. She could hear the continued fire of the children's weapons, the screams of the mother and children who had not escaped the carnage. And her heart ached for them; even as she died, her only regret was that she had not protected the delicate balance of life which she had so envied only moments before.

It seemed like an eternity before the pain tearing through her began to give way to numbness, before the sound of bullets shattering the stone walls ceased, replaced by the thunder of hundreds of feet trudging back up, into the sunlit streets of Tokyo.

Her vision was fading, filling in with cloudy black at the edges. It was disconcerting, to realize that she couldn't quite remember where she was. Who she was. Who she had been with. But it seemed that she had experienced this feeling before; this feeling of forgetting.

She was so lost in the fear of losing all memory, it took her a moment to realize that someone was touching her, leaning over her, peering into her eyes. A child; a small girl, with long golden locks, blood pouring from bullet holes through her chest. Everything came rushing back, everything in that instant, everything since the day she had woken for the first time, lying in the middle of Tokyo, no memories to follow.

The child smiled down at Neko, even as both of them died. And Neko could only smile back, and mouth an apology, that she hadn't been able to save them. Any of them. Mother, children, herself… only Cassie and Rachel had gotten away…

"No," The child's whisper almost broke her heart; high, sweet, forgiving, "You did it. You saved us all."

Neko caught her dying breath as the Geass insignia blazed in the child's right eye, flapping as the power was cast upon her. Neko felt it burn through her, surging into her being, burning through her blood… sealing her wounds?

"I give you this Code, by my Master's word." The girl whispered, the light in her eyes dying as her life force flooded into Neko, "Use it well to defend those who can not defend themselves."

And then she flopped onto the stone, and was dead.

Only a second later, so was Neko.


	4. Chapter Three The Demon King

Chapter Three

Breath rushed back into her lungs as her heart jumped to an uneven start. Air flooded coolly over her aching muscles, filling her, replenishing the life she had lost and reminding her of the life the child had given her. She was tired; her body felt like lead, her eyes would not open, her hand burned…

Her hand burned?

She sat bolt upright, crying out in agony as she tugged at the swiftly healing punctures that riddled her chest. Her burning hand flew up to clutch at her body, and she saw it. The scarlet insignia of Geass; the winged V shape which appeared in her eye when she played with another's mind; was burned over the back of her hand. Precisely where the dead child had touched her.

_I give you this Code… use it well to defend those who can not defend themselves…_

"What?" She screamed, clutching at her head. She regretted it immediately, as her world spun with pain. She felt like she might tip sideways out of the bed.

And then there were hands on her; one on her shoulders, one on her back; gently lowering her onto the mound of pillows where it felt like she must have been lying for a very long time. There was a dent in the shape of her torso in the bed.

Dizziness made her vision unstable; she could not make out the person towering over her, gently stroking the streaming brown hair from her eyes. It took a very long time for that spinning sensation to stop; for her eyes to focus in on him.

When she did, she could only scream again.

She knew his face; delicate, almost feminine in its beauty, framed by wild strands of midnight hair, decorated by a pair of intelligent violet eyes. She knew his face from pictures she had seen since the day her memories had begun; pictures of a Demon in an Emperor's chair.

"L-Lelouch Vi Britannia." She gasped, trying to scramble away from him. With gentle hands he restrained her.

"Is the brat giving you trouble, Lelouch?"

Another voice; a woman's, this time; called from the other side of the room. Even through her fear of the Demon King sitting at her bedside, Neko's instinct for battle overcame her. She glanced in the direction of the voice. This woman, too, she recognized. But not in the same way; not because she had been shown pictures in history class. This woman she had not met before; not that she could remember, though that meant little. But she cold feel it; this woman was a source of Geass.

"She only knows me as a tyrant, C.C." Lelouch reminded the woman. Neko was shocked by how low, how gentle his voice was. She had expected the harshness often associated with beings of evil, "She does not understand my motives."

That took Neko off guard. Didn't everyone understand his motives? They were clear, weren't they? He'd wanted power…?

Had he…?

Something was blurring her vision again, but not pain this time. Memories. Memories that were not her own… not Neko's… memories of before her life had started?

Yes. _His _memories.

They were not clear; translucent before eyes not meant to see them. But they still hurt. They still brought her an understanding that no one had of the Demon King, Lelouch.

It seemed an eternity before her vision cleared again. When it did, she was blinking away tears.

"Do you understand?" Lelouch asked quietly. She could only stare at him, horrified. She was not even surprised that he knew he had been Geassed.

She understood, yes. All too clearly. She understood the complexity of the betrayals which had marked his life from the beginning; the death of his mother, the creation of Zero, the battle with the White Knight, the birth of the Demon King, the death of the Demon King, and everything in between. She understood it. The horror and depth of the plot which had begun with the chance meeting of a high-school boy and a weapon so great, terrorists and soldiers alike had all died in the futile attempts to retrieve it.

"Are you sure you made the right choice?" C.C. asked dryly. She had moved over to the other bed and curled herself around a giant plush cheese stick, "She seems rather easily panicked."

"You saw her in the tunnel." Lelouch murmured, "Can you really say she is easily panicked?"

"But _look _at her!" C.C. objected. Neko narrowed her eyes. How could this strange woman already hate her so completely?

Lelouch turned to face her, still not rising from his chair at Neko's side.

"If you're jealous, witch, you should just admit it." He growled. C.C. made a disgusted sound at the back of her throat and tossed her hair, "If not, just be quiet. I need to talk to her." C.C. only glared. Lelouch turned back to Neko and sighed, "Women,"

"Excuse me?" Neko growled pointedly.

"You must be wondering how you are alive?"

"The Code," Neko hissed softly at the change in subjects, but she could offer no real objection, "You told that child to give it to me."

He frowned, "I did not." He disagreed, "Though I asked that woman to look after the girls. I do not know who created those children, or who sent them." He turned from her, staring up at a speck on the ceiling, "It seems we are not the only ones who have been watching you, Neko."

"Watching…?"

"Of course," C.C. snapped, "How did you _think _we found you? Just happened by a place where Geass was running rampant?"

A memory flickered in Neko's mind; an indistinct figure, a flash of movement, seen out of the corner of her eye before she turned to stare at an empty window.

"C.C…" Lelouch hissed his warning. C.C. flashed him an impudent glare, but said no more. He turned back to Neko again, "Yes, we have been watching you."

"Why?"

Neko was not sure why she was still relatively calm. A normal girl would have truly panicked by now; hit the man and made a break for it. Crawled underneath the covers and hoped the nightmare would end. She was sitting in a hotel room with a strange man and a somehow even stranger woman. She had just woken from the dead. They had been following her. And still, she was barely afraid…

"You have Geass." He observed, "But not from C.C. or I, and the others are all dead. Which means that someone gave it to you before the war ended."

Neko nodded. She knew this, already.

"Which also means that there was a source of Geass that neither of us knew about."

"Which, as I keep saying, is impossible." C.C. snapped. Lelouch glared at her again.

"What do you want from me?" Neko asked, forcing him to turn back to her, "You _must _know I have no memories."

"I am aware." Lelouch agreed. Suddenly, he was on his feet, pacing across the room, "But what we need from you does not require memories. It requires power."

Energy thrilled through Neko's body. She, too, came to her feet, without really knowing why. She drew herself up tall, one hand reaching for the rod at her belt.

"_Power _is something I _do _have."

"So you… want me to reorganize the Black Knights?" Neko asked.

It had been almost four hours. C.C. had drifted out of the hotel some time ago. Lelouch had told her everything he knew, from the very beginning of the story. From Empress Nunnally's blindness and C.C.'s contract. Every decision he had made, eventually leading to his supposed death.

And then everything after. Waking in the grave as C.C. dug him out, living five years as a commoner, traveling from one hotel to the next. The information he had gathered on the wars in Russia… the enemy there…

"You're sure that… those children… are the ones who are killing in Russia?" Neko whispered, "The ones they won't let us see."

"Yes," Lelouch's voice was urgent now, "They're here, Neko. They're already here. And I'm not sure why, but the first thing they did was come to try and kill you. That means they consider you a threat. That means you have power."

He leaned in towards her. Neko was beyond trying to shift away. This man, to her, was no longer the Demon King. This man was Zero once more.

"What is your Geass, Neko?" He asked.

"Emotion." She murmured, "Or maybe memory. I can read peoples' pasts, find their fears and their desires, make them feel whatever I want them to."

He stared at her. Neko thought she saw a shiver pass down his spine. She didn't blame him. She had seen the torture her power could make some feel. She hated her Geass, almost as much as she hated the stagnant life she led.

"You would do well, as the new leader of the Black Knights." He approved, "You have the right spirit, the right mind. The right Geass."

"You want me to destroy my life, like you did? For the good of the people?"

"Do you have a problem with that?"

Neko hesitated. She was tempted to say that she did; that she would be perfectly happy to keep living with the Student Council at Ashford; with Cassie and Rachel, Katsu and Tristen and Haru. But suddenly, everything came rushing back to her. How much she hated being unable to change anything, the Code which made her death an impossibility, the Geass that she could never quite control, the false family that had died in the subway tunnels, the mysterious war in Russia… the children of Geass, their bullets tearing through her chest…

"I can't just let it go." She whispered.

"What?"

She lifted her eyes to him, and he flinched back. The deep brown eye sucked him in, enveloped him in dark heat. The violet one shimmered, cold and furious, full of hatred for a world that would never improve.

"I accept this Geass. I will lead the Black Knights."


	5. Chapter Four FLEIJA

Chapter Four

Neko stood outside the gate of Ashford Academy, staring out across the dark grounds. They seemed so alien now, like they came from another time. In a way, they did. A time before she had learned the truth… before she had taken her new name.

Stain. A name she had chosen for herself. A name which would be hers, as the new leader of the Black Knights. It had confused Lelouch to no end, irritated C.C., as everything Neko said seemed to. Even she could not really explain why it seemed so right. Perhaps it was because this was what she was trying to remove. The stain of boredom on the fabric of her life. The stain of corruption on the government's quilt. The stain of blood on the hands of innocents.

No matter what had made her choose, it was the name that had changed her. The name that had carried her away from the life of a student. It had separated her from her friends by false death, by a white and gold mask in the image of Zero's. By a shimmering, moonlit cloak and sleek uniform meant to conceal everything about her. Her heart ached to know it. She could never speak to her friends again. Not as Neko. Not as the girl who had died that day.

She could feel Lelouch towering behind her, garbed in the flowing purples and reds of Zero, cloak and mask concealing his existence from the world. She knew he would gaze upon Ashford with the same melancholy reverence as she did; he, too, had taken refuge here in a time of difficulty. He, too, had built a life and formed friendships which he, like her, had chosen to shatter for the sake of Japan… for the sake of the world. But he, like her, would never forget the warmth and comfort of a friend's embrace… nor the soaring joy of a friend's smile.

"She won't be asleep." Neko observed. Her voice sounded garbled beneath the pearly mask, "She'll be worrying about me. She was there… but she won't think I'm dead. Cassie thinks I'm invincible."

"Aren't you?" Lelouch whispered.

"Not really." Neko sighed, stepping forwards. She pulled a long, hooked needle from a pocket on the inside of her cloak and slid it into the lock, "I come back from the dead. That's not the same as being invincible."

Lelouch chuckled sadly. He knew that was true. He, too, would live forever.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Neko murmured, smiling slightly beneath her mask as the gate came open with a click. She slid the needle back into the pocket and readjusted her soft white gloves, "The grounds are bound to be thriving. I wasn't exactly unpopular."

"You're about to become hated." Lelouch pointed out.

"Answer my question."

"Between our Geasses, no one will notice a thing."

They stepped through the gates, and Neko paused, turning to face him. It took her a moment to get used to the sight. Zero; she had always thought of him as someone who stood at the shoulder of the Empress, an advisor alone. But now she had seen the real masked man; the miracle maker. A man of action, of dissatisfaction, whose hatred and thirst for power were insatiable. The sort of man who made her burn with curiosity. The sort of man who could help her change things for the better.

"Lelouch…"

"Zero," He corrected, "My name will be used only in private."

She nodded. She understood completely. It was the same with her, "Zero, I want you to promise me something."

She could almost feel his eyebrow lift.

"I want you to promise me that they won't be harmed." She watched his entire body stiffen, "Shirley died. Euphemia died. You lost friends everywhere, and it destroyed you. I want you to promise that this won't happen to me."

He hesitated for an instant, and then lowered his head slightly, the point where she was certain he was trying to avoid her truth-hunting gaze, "I cannot promise that, Neko." He murmured, "But we are no longer fighting for freedom. We are fighting for survival. For their survival. It would be counterproductive if they were to be killed in the battles."

Neko blinked slowly. She wasn't sure that was what she wanted to hear, but knowing what little she did of Lelouch, she could tell it was the most satisfactory answer she was going to get. Without another word, she turned and paced off across campus.

As she had expected, there were plenty of students gathered on campus, but none of them noticed the cloaks figures as they brushed over the trimmed grass towards Neko's dorm. It took all of Neko's control not to stop and stare at them; she knew what they must be doing.

The whole school stood together in a ring, candles balanced lightly in their palms. They were swaying together, first left than right, droning out a song which they knew Neko had always loved. It was a song she was shocked to hear many of them sing; few still idolized the Black Knights.

And yet, here they stood, chanting the words and notes to a song that pictured the Black Knights as heroes… the Black Knights and Zero. Behind her, she could feel Lelouch growing stiff. He, too, could hear their words. _Black Knights save us… Black Knights protect us… Zero for us all…_

"You…?" He whispered.

"No." Neko responded as quietly as she could. Still, over the tuneless buzz, no one would hear, "My friend Cassie wrote it for me. I have always looked up to the Black Knights."

"And they would sing it? Most of them are Britannian."

Neko had no answer. She had not realized how important she was to the school.

Their pace was carrying them away from the crowd, but she could still hear their music. She knew that, for them, the song was a prayer. A prayer to Zero to bring her back to them. The irony almost made her laugh.

"Where are your things?" Lelouch whispered as they slipped lightly through a crack between two buildings.

"Third dorm." Neko responded, stepping out into the back courtyard once more. This time, the space was empty. She jogged across it, pulling out her needle tool once more and bending to the lock.

She cried out as the door swung open in front of her.

The voice which shattered Neko's shock was familiar. It trembled with tears and fear, but it was familiar. She looked up into a pair of leafy green eyes.

"Who are you?" Cassandra whispered, "What do you want?"

Neko stayed frozen on the doorstep, crouched, hands half raised with the needle tool grasped tightly between her fingers. She could not take her eyes from Cassie. She could not believe it… why did _she _have to be the one who caught them. Why wasn't she with the others, standing vigil?

She could see Cassandra's grief fading; drifting off into rage. She could guess at her train of thought. Several feet back, still hidden in the shadows, she couldn't see Lelouch. She didn't know that Zero was there. But she _would _see that Stain's uniform was much the same as Zero's. Only the coloration had been altered. Neko's heart beat faster. She was not ready for the world to know her yet.

"Use your Geass." The hiss came barely loud enough for her to hear. Neko whirled around, glaring at him. She had made a vow; she would not make Lelouch's mistakes. She would never touch her friends with Geass.

"Who are you?" Cassie repeated, and Neko whirled back to face her. She looked around just in time to dodge the girl's foot.

Neko leapt back off the step, landing in a light crouch on the gravel path. She looked up to find Cassandra pursuing her. Heart seizing up, Neko whirled and dashed off across the grounds. If she could only lose the girl… she would have time to retrieve her things and get out.

She knew Lelouch would not follow. If there was one thing that man didn't have, it was stamina. Even after so many years of life as a commoner, he was still weaker than many of the women Neko knew. She knew she could not get help from her friends; at this point she didn't have any. She had yet to even meet the Black Knights. Her only resources were her own speed and strength, and her Geass. All things that outmatched Cassie's.

She pushed on faster, trying to keep her breathing level as she raced on across the courtyard. She could hear Cassie pursuing her, growing ever further away. She was doing it; she was winning the race. But this wasn't a race. This was not a straight line. To get back to her room, she would have to turn and face Cassie. That was something she wasn't willing to do.

Neko swept her gaze through the night. The mask of Stain illuminated the world for her; she saw it in black and white. She knew that Cassie could not see so well. Cassie would be nearly blind in the night.

Her eyes fell on the pretty little cabin which had been her social center for so long. It would serve one last purpose.

Swerving around to run towards it, she pulled a tiny container out of her pocket. Her breath came ragged now; fear and exertion making her lungs ache. She had never run so far, so fast. But it was necessary. Cassie had to survive. If Cassie died; if any of them died; there would be no point to Neko joining the fight.

Neko crashed straight through the door. Against the new strength that came with her Code, the wood was like paper. One easy leap carried her to the top of the table, then to the bookshelves. She crouched atop them, drawing her cloak more tightly around her slender form. She held the vial close to her chest, concealed and protected between her lithe fingers.

Moments later, Cassie came tearing through the shattered doorframe. She looked straight at Neko, and her eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth to speak.

Neko made her throw.

The vial shattered on the ground, and white gas roared up all around them. Neko could hear, clear through the mask's sensory enhancements, Cassie coughing. Cassie gasping for air. Cassie collapsing.

The instant her friend hit the floor, Neko leapt from the bookshelf and into the white cloud. The gas swerved around her, twisting vainly into the filters in her mask. There was no affect on her. The mask cleaned the air.

She stooped, swinging Cassie's light shape easily into her arms. Lelouch's words, as he had handed her the mask, echoed in her mind.

_This mask is a shield and a trap. When you wear it, there is no such thing as a friend. _

Perhaps, for Zero, this was true. But Neko would never let go.

Lelouch was waiting for her when she stepped out of the white cloud, emerging into the night like a glowing angel. She could almost feel his disapproval.

"Wasted time…" He started.

"Don't." She hissed, "I will not make your mistakes. My friends will not be victims of my goals."

And then she was running again, pacing off towards her dormitory. She hoped he couldn't sense her feelings, as she could feel his. She hoped he wouldn't know the tears that the mask absorbed from her cheeks.

Neko laid Cassie gently across the bed, and pulled off her mask. The girl looked peaceful; she was breathing easily again, at the very least. Perhaps it was a good thing; judging by the deep shadows under her eyes Cassie had not slept since the accident in the tunnel. In a way, Neko was glad to have had the chance to mend that.

"What was it that you needed?" Lelouch asked from the doorway. His voice, on the surface, still sounded calm. But she could hear his wild nerves. He wanted to get out, before someone found them.

"Wait here." Neko murmured, and then whisked into the bathroom. She heard his discontented sigh. She knew what he was thinking; makeup, or some precious hairbrush. But it was nothing like that.

The bathroom was tiny, and in her cloak Neko found it hard to maneuver around the toilet and the sink, to the barely manageable space behind. But it was there… she had to retrieve it… that which not even Cassie had ever known.

Gloved hands scratched feverishly at the loose board in the wall, pulling it away from its fellows to reveal a deep gap in the structure. Her arm vanished as she reached in, bending lower to get everything up to her shoulder into the crack. Still, it took her a moment of fishing to find what she wanted. Her hands closed around a bulging yellow envelop.

With a soft sound of triumph, she pulled it out. Through the mask she could read it easily, even with only the light of the stars. _Midori Neko; Private. _She remembered well the days she had first begun writing these papers, making these plans. There was no way she would leave them behind.

"Zero?"

Neko shot onto her feet, whirling around as her free hand replaced her mask and then flew to her rod. Someone had found them.

"Stain," Lelouch's voice was still calm. She could feel which direction it came from; he was edging towards the window.

She leapt straight over the toilet, landing on the rim of the sink and balancing in a precarious crouch. She stared out the door in front of her, eyes finding the figure standing just outside the room. She caught her breath. She knew why she had known his voice.

"Katsu…" She whispered, fist closing more tightly around her rod. She felt the three foot blades extend before her. His eyes widened, and it took Neko a moment to realize her mistake.

"Neko?"

She did not speak. She did not even think. She just lashed out.

This was not like what Lelouch wanted her to do with Cassie. This was not like what she would have to do to a teacher, if they caught her. This was different. He had to believe. He had to believe he was wrong… that she had simply taken Neko's weapon. Leaping down from the sink, she stepped out into her own bedroom, and freed her Geass.

His thoughts filled her head; memories from as far back as infancy. Jealousy surged in her heart as she watched his life flash before her eyes. He stood, suspended in that world between life and death. She knew he was watching, too.

She paid little attention to most of his life, burrowing straight past the surface; his love for his family, his grief when they died. She hesitated when she felt his feelings for the Student Council; protectiveness, exasperation… love. She was shocked by how often her own image cropped up.

But even these emotions she shunted aside, burrowing deeper into his mind and unlocking his deepest torture. And it was this feeling that shocked her more than anything.

A horrible, gut-wrenching blow of hatred and terror. And one picture; Katsu standing in the ranks of the Black Knights, facing the woman who had been protecting them all for as long as she could remember. Facing Empress Nunnally Vi Britannia.

She hated to do it. Personally, she supported Nunnally. The girl, crippled as she was, had done a brilliant job of supporting the suddenly peaceful Britannian Empire. She had given the Japanese more freedom than they had ever had; even before the rise of the Empire. But this hatred wasn't about politics, or her actions as Empress. This was about something deeper. Something personal.

And there it was. Neko had no memories of that battle, but somehow she knew she had been there. The blinding flash, the horrible whitish color, the utter destruction it left behind. It all seemed so familiar.

_FREYA…_

Neko hated to do it, but it was the only way to make Katsu forget that he had recognized her. She latched onto the memory, forced it to fill his mind, brought it to surface and made it the only thing he could see. FREYA… blasting through Tokyo… while he watched from the top of a building... he was only twelve… and he watched from afar as his family dissolved in the explosion.

She could hear him screaming, but Neko was too caught in the memory to release him. She heard him fall, but she watched him fall as well, a small boy collapsing to his knees, wailing and clutching at his head as his life shattered. Her heart ached for him. He had always been distant, always seemed angry. She had never suspected why.

And then she remembered. He hated FREYA, more than anything. And in Zero's final battle, when Katsu's parents were killed, Nunnally had been the one to wield it.

She held it for a moment longer, watching as Katsu folded to the ground in both worlds; one writhing in pain, one screaming with madness. And then she pulled away, just before the connection could become permanent. Her vision cleared, and Katsu slumped to the ground, gasping for breath.

"I am Stain." She told him darkly. Her voice sounded odd through the mask; rasping, too powerful. Not Neko's voice, "You will see me soon."

And then she whirled and, leaping straight past Lelouch, dove through the window and plummeted towards the grassy courtyard below.

She could feel him falling behind her. She was somewhat surprised; Lelouch was not an athletic man. But she remembered some of the stories he had told her; of Zero's leaps of faith, diving from heights much too great to survive. Falling, at least, was a skill he did possess.

Neko rolled easily into her fall, touching down on a curve and tumbling, unhurt, out of Lelouch's way. He landed in his own way, touching down and dropping into a low crouch to absorb the impact. Neko had tried that once; she didn't want to remember how much it had hurt. Perhaps she had been underestimating him.

"Have you had any contact with your sister?" Neko asked, unfolding onto her feet in the same instant as he straightened. By unspoken consent, they began to run once more. They could hear students shouting; the campus had been quiet but for the low hum of Neko's song. They had all heard Katsu screaming.

"None." Lelouch's voice carried a low warning. Nunnally was not a safe topic.

"Katsu is a Black Knight." She told him, dodging lightly around a corner and making for the final dash towards the open gate, "He's after Nunnally."

She thought she saw his step falter, but there was no other sign of surprise. She smirked beneath the mask. _Ever in control. _

"Do you think we should let Suzaku know?" She asked, seizing the gate and pulling it shut behind her. She could hear police sirens in the distance; Knightmares, riding to the rescue. She was shocked by how quickly they had been called, "He _is _Nunnally's guardian, is he not?"

"Partner, really." Lelouch disagreed, taking the lead. Neko followed him willingly. Off Ashford grounds, she had no idea where they were going, "I don't think it's really necessary. The chance of Katsu getting anywhere near her is less than none."

"What do you expect me to do now?" She asked, tucking her envelop under her cloak and folding at the waist to increase her speed. Suddenly, she was dashing beside him.

"Take control of the Black Knights." Lelouch responded calmly, leaping into a nearby alley just before a Knightmare went whizzing by, "They should have convened by now, after that attack."

"The children in the subway tunnel…"

"They knew it was coming. They had guards posted in the tunnel. They picked your friends up when they ran."

Suddenly, Neko understood. Katsu was one of them; one of the Black Knights. That was why he had wanted them out of the subway tunnels. He had known the enemy was nearby.

"How will I take control of them?"

"Figure it out as you go along." Lelouch growled, lunging into the open again, "I can't have your actions looking too much like mine. They'll suspect."

"Aren't you going to come back, too?"

Lelouch glanced at her. Even through the mask, she could feel his speculative look.

"Not until you've gained their trust." He murmured. His pace began to slow back to a jog. She pulled to a sudden halt, allowing him to move several feet ahead of her, so he was still in the lead, "They won't be happy to see that I'm alive."

"They'll probably think they've gone insane." Neko glanced around the street. She was standing on the pavement, surrounded on all sides by shabby, leaning apartment buildings. She frowned, "The Ghettos."

"The ones Nunnally never fixed." Lelouch agreed, "As a memorial to those who died protecting it."

Neko nodded. Her memory covered the restoration; just not the war.

"The Black Knights are here?"

"Most of them fought to protect it. It was their home, before the Empire. They still consider it their home now."

Neko shook her head slowly. She wondered what it would be like to have a home.

"Are you ready to begin, Stain?" His voice was soft, regretful. Neko smiled to herself. He didn't want her to fall into the same fate as he had. No friends, no family, no death.

"Let's go, Zero. I want to get this done before breakfast."

He grimaced, and pointed towards a shabby building off towards the right. It looked like it had once been a three-floor garage, but the door had been thrown from its hinges and it looked like the back half had fallen in.

"They're in there." He told her, "Let me know when you're through."

Neko nodded briefly, and then she was gone, bounding across the street. Ignoring the door, she scrambled up the cracked side of the garage and vanished into the second floor of parking. Lelouch looked after her approvingly.

"She will make a good accomplice." He observed.

"Let's just hope she's not too much for you to handle."

Lelouch turned to her, but C.C. had already gone.

It was a simple thing to creep through the battered old garage, leaping into the first floor by the hole in the back. She moved lightly, dancing easily by the guard in the toll booth near the back. Disdain for his ignorance filled her as she examined him from behind. His heels were thrown up on the desk, his hands behind his head, his gun flat across his lap, unprepared for fire. He was singing at the top of his voice; badly; the radio screaming out over him. He had no chance of hearing anything, no chance of seeing the blinding white and gold figure as she slunk by him. Peaceful years had made the Black Knights lax.

Her footsteps barely echoed as she dashed across the lower floor of the parking lot, running towards the only elevator which looked to be operational. She could see from here that there was a guard posted inside, and he looked much more aware than the first had. Her eyes narrowed as she shifted through the files in her mind, trying to connect that face to one of the pictures Lelouch had shown her.

_Sugiyama Kento_, his voice filled her memory. _Special Division Captain. A suspicious man, but loyal once you gain his trust. _She remembered Kento clearly. Tall and slim with a pointed face and dark green hair.

He would be easy to persuade. Easier than someone like Ohgi or Kallen would have been.

Moving lightly, so Kento would not snatch up his gun before she reached him, Neko skirted his field of vision, pressing herself against the wall beside the elevator door. Her Geass was open; Lelouch had ordered her to release it; and she could feel his impatience. He was waiting for someone. Neko couldn't help but wonder if Lelouch had arranged for Kento to be there, so he could let her down.

Slipping her rod carefully out of its sheath, Neko took a long, deep breath. Part of her wished she could just go back to Ashford, resume the boring life she had learned to despise so much. In a way, it was more pleasing. There was not so much risk.

But she could not deny that this risk thrilled her. It sent her blood into a raging boil. The adrenaline pulsing through her veins was almost too much; she had to work to keep from leaping ahead of the plan. She enjoyed the lack of calmness, the feeling that she didn't belong. And she knew that the Ashford students considered her head dead now. She could never return.

The last five seconds of waiting seemed to drag on for eternity. She wanted to run, to begin her life as Stain, to leave the amnesiac Neko behind.

But her suffered patience was quickly rewarded. The ground shook and the world filled with blinding white light as the air all around erupted. Closing her eyes, Neko smirked. Lelouch fulfilled his promises well.

"What was that?" Kento shouted, leaping out of the elevator. Neko slipped behind him, tucking into a corner where she was out of view of the lax guard in the toll booth.

"No idea!" The man in the toll booth shouted. Once again, Neko shifted through her filed mind, hunting his name. _Shinichiro Tamaki…second special squadron leader… internal cleaning supporter… terrible pilot… hothead… _

"Check it out!" Kento shouted, "I'll go warn the others!"

"Right," Neko heard Tamaki's footsteps retreating towards the explosion. She had no idea what he would find there; Lelouch hadn't told her his entire plan; but she was certain it wouldn't be good.

And then Kento leapt into the elevator, and everything outside her own mission became insignificant. Kento leaned his gun against the elevator wall and turned to start it down. His eyes fell on her shimmering, pearly mask. Kento stumbled back against the wall.

"What…?" He gasped, pressing into the corner, "Z-Zero…?"

Neko couldn't help but smirk. That had been their intention; confuse them, frighten them… make them lose their false sense of security.

"No," She disagreed. Her voice was distorted, hissing to disguise her identity. But it was definitely a woman's, "Stain."

"St… stain?" Kento whispered. He tried to make the movement minor, but she saw his hand slip down and grasp his gun.

"Don't do that, Kento." She suggested, turning calmly and pressing the basement button. The elevator jerked sharply, throwing Kento off his feet, as it began its descent, "You'd never be able to hurt me before I cut your head off." She twitched the hand holding her rod. The blade flashed in the feverish yellow light.

He sank, trembling, to the floor. The gun clattered down at his side, and Neko pulled it easily away from him, hooking it with her white boot and flipping it up into her grasp.

"What do you want?" He asked. Neko smirked. He knew she wasn't Zero; he would have known from the beginning. As far as any of the Black Knights knew, Zero was still with them, working alongside Nunnally to shape a better world. And as far as they knew, it had been working… in Japan.

"To speak with your leader." She told him, spinning the rod in slow circles so the blades threw spots of light across her white and gold uniform.

"Zero?" He asked, making a valiant attempt to stand. The wall, however, was too slick to support his weight. He was still on the floor when the elevator ground to a halt.

"Naturally not." Neko disagreed, turning towards the door. She straightened her cloak, hiding the rod beneath it. She knew what would be waiting for her the instant the doors opened. The Black Knights would have heard the explosion, "Zero I have already spoken to. I am looking for Suzaku Kururugi."

"Suzaku…" Kento started to object.

And the doors opened.

Neko had known what to expect, and she was neither surprised nor disappointed. The room beyond was packed with people; some standing ready with their weapons, others just rising from their seats around the long, ovular table. Neko hardly had time for an accurate headcount, but she could see enough of them in one instant for an estimate. There were almost thirty of them; men and women in the garb of the Black Knights.

"Kento!" Her eyes flicked up and found Kaname Ohgi; second in command among the Black Knights, and prime minister of Japan.

"Who is that?" She knew immediately that the red haired girl must be Kallen Kouzuki. Neko smirked behind her mask. Lelouch had warned her to aim for Kallen; gain her trust first. Who she trusted, the Black Knights all trusted.

Moving at her usual easy lope, she stepped out of the elevator, slipping by the first several soldiers before they realized she had moved. They peeled easily out of her way, moved by her Geass as she carefully manipulated the degree of fear in the air, reaching into their minds and making them feel again what had frightened them in the past. Enough to make them back away, not enough for panic.

"My name…" She murmured to Kallen, "Is Stain."


	6. Chapter Five His Mantel

Chapter Five

"Stain?" Neko could see that Kallen was processing things faster than any of the others. Making connections between Stain and Zero that none of the others were willing to make. Lelouch had warned her that Kallen might be the only one who knew. She had been the one to set the others' suspicions aside; to assure them that the Zero who killed the Demon King was the real one. That he had been capture, detained, while Lelouch took over and ruined the world. But he had never been certain that _she _believed that.

"Stain," Neko agreed calmly, "I am here to see your Zero."

Kallen's hand itched towards her gun, "Zero is indisposed." She growled.

"I think he's quite free." Neko disagreed calmly, "Or are times not quite so peaceful as you've been telling us?"

Kallen stared at her for a moment. Neko could see her beginning to shake.

And then she had launched herself across the conference room, drawing her gun from its holster in the same instant that she fired it.

Tense silence followed the snap of the gun, broken only by the click of Kallen's boots as she landed in an easy crouch, gun still held before her. They all stared at Stain, waiting for crimson blood to spread across her uniform… for her to fall.

But nothing happened. Neko stood straight, her masked face slightly tilted so she appeared to be staring down on Kallen. In her hand, her rod was slightly raised. The bullet lay flattened at her feet. Whispers of awe wreathed around her.

"I am faster than Lelouch was." Neko told Kallen pointedly. The blades on her rod rang eerily as they slipped away. She tucked it back in its sheath at her belt, and she raised one hand to her mask. Instantly, several of the Black Knights covered their eyes. She laughed, "Don't worry. Geass is not the same for everyone."

And with a mechanical buzzing, the mask opened from her face.

Katsu wasn't there to recognize her, but it didn't matter. Neko's appearance had changed. Her wandering hair was no longer brown, but as blindingly white as the fabric of her cloak. Her skin had always been pale, but against the ivory of her uniform it looked almost ghostly. But it was her eyes that would hide her best, when he did come. A contact had turned the brown one to the same shimmering, unearthly violet as her other… as Lelouch's eyes.

"You would… show us your face…?" Ohgi's voice was faint; as though he expected her to start shooting them down for looking at her. She met his gaze evenly, a tiny smile flicking across her lips.

"Zero did not tell you who he was because his identity was one he knew you could not accept… and he had friends outside the Black Knights he wanted to protect." She tossed a disobedient strand of white hair back over her shoulder, scanning the crowds slowly with her unnatural violet eyes, "I have no identity beyond that of Stain."

"What do you want?" Kallen was standing tall again. She was barely two feet away now, glaring at Neko, quite clearly wishing she was just a bit taller so she could try looming.

"To speak with your Zero." Neko responded calmly, turning her back on Kallen to examine the Knight standing directly behind her. He did not match any of her mental files, "I have already told you that."

"But what do you want to talk about?"

Neko, for a moment, was silent. She could feel them tense behind her, their fear and anticipation. She had them hanging off her every word.

"That, Q-1, is for your Zero's ears."

"What's for my ears?"

Everyone there turned towards the back of the room, and Neko smirked. There he stood; Suzaku Kururugi, garbed in the uniform only the true Zero should wear. She was not surprised by his scattered emotions; he was accustomed to wearing Zero's mask by now, but he had never expected something like her to appear. Something so alien.

Suzaku was busy analyzing her features. The Black Knights were busy trying to decide whether to defer to him or continue questioning her. This was Neko's chance.

She moved quickly, her arm snapping out from her side with impossible speed and strength. Her gold and ivory mask soared through the air, straight for Suzaku. He knocked it easily off course. It clattered against the wall a few feet to his side, and slid to the floor with a crash. A moment of stunned silence followed.

"Much too quick, friend." Neko hissed disapprovingly. For the barest instant, she allowed the Geass insignia to glow in her eye. She felt the collective breath they drew, and inside she grinned maliciously. Who knew it could be so much fun? "Lelouch was never so athletic."

"_Lelouch _was never the real Zero." Neko had to admit that he acted very well. The disgust with which he pronounced the name Lelouch would have fooled anyone… except her. She could feel his grief at the thought of his friend.

"I will speak with you." She told him coldly, drawing her cloak more tightly about her, "I've brought you some orders."

Murmurs of confusion, even hatred, surrounded her. They had seen the Geass in her. They recognized her controlling manor as that of Lelouch. Any minor trust they might have had in her had shattered. Neko knew Lelouch had sent her in here to become the leader of the Black Knights… but to do that, she had to shake their boundaries, and discard the leader they already had.

Suzaku hesitated visibly, but Neko had already swept past him and through the door at the back of the room. She stooped slightly as she walked through the door, lifting her white mask in deceptively feminine fingers.

Despite the endless twists and turns of the underground base of the Black Knights, it was not difficult for Neko to find Zero's quarters. The furthest door down the furthest hall from the meeting room. A door painted black, decorated by a purple Geass insignia.

Striding into the room, she did not pause to look around. One glance was enough to tell her that the other Black Knights never came in here; it was not decorated for Zero's theme, but for the white and gold of the Knight of Zero. The bed in the corner, the armchair against the opposite wall, the desk and chair and the pen stand… all of it, white trimmed with gold. Zero had a strange pattern. She knew this must be why he had chosen the colors for her; Lelouch's guardian, Lelouch's second in command, though not Zero's, would always wear white and gold.

She crossed the room easily, spinning and folding into the comfortable armchair. Her eyes found Suzaku immediately, and Kallen behind him.

_So she _does _know… _

"You can leave us, Kallen. If you want." Suzaku murmured. His voice was confused. He, too, could feel Lelouch in Stain's words. She was certain of that. But to him it meant something different; his friend and commander might very well have survived his sword.

"How can I?" Kallen protested loudly. She rounded instantly on Stain, "Who _are _you? What gives you the right to just walk in on Zero and start doubting his legitimacy?"

"Relax, Kallen." Suzaku sighed, crossing to sit on his bed, "I think she already knows."

Kallen's tension dropped, and she rounded on him, "What? How could she?"

Calmly, Suzaku reached up. The mask hummed as it opened from his head, and he pulled it away. His brown hair was damp.

"Those things really _are _stifling." Neko laughed. Suzaku smiled shakily, "Relax, friend." She told him, "You too, Kallen. I'm a messenger, not an assassin."

"And just _what _is this message?" Kallen snarled.

Neko's violet eyes found Suzaku's, and he flinched. Her face was abruptly intense, "It is time." She whispered, "He is almost ready to take back his mantel."

The air in the room turned to ice.


	7. Chapter Six Can Not Fail

Chapter Six

Lelouch looked up as Neko walked into the room, her frost-hued helmet tucked lightly beneath her arm. In one glance, he understood the exhausted triumph in her eyes.

"I'm in." She told him, turning and falling backwards on the hotel bed. Lelouch smirked lightly.

"I had no doubt you would be." He told her.

"I know." Neko twisted around on the bed, until she could see him, "Suzaku looked like he was going to die right there, when I told him you were coming back."

Lelouch chuckled softly, "He did kill me, after all."

"You should have warned him this might happen. He's strong, but he's still human. He doesn't have a Code to restart his heart."

Lelouch shrugged, "He's under a Geass to survive." He pointed out.

Neko turned back to look at the ceiling, "Right…"

"So she succeeded." C.C.'s voice ran a chill of irritation up Neko's spine, but she stayed quiet.

"Yes," Lelouch murmured, and Neko's eyes flew back to his. His tone was contemplative, distant; and more than a little smug, "She succeeded brilliantly."

Neko felt a tingle of pleasure at Lelouch's praise, but kept her face straight.

"What do I do next?" She asked, forcing her keen interest not to show. She didn't fool him; he gave a soft chuckle and rolled easily out of his seat, laying his book across the arm of the chair to hold his page.

"Gain their trust." He replied, crossing the room. He seemed to move without thought, drifting unconsciously towards C.C. The woman's yellow gaze; which had been resting coldly on Neko; flickered up to him as he drew nearer, and Neko saw those knowing eyes melt. A soft smile crossed her face, unchecked. Neko blinked in surprise as Lelouch returned that smile, reaching out with one long-fingered hand to brush her cheek fondly. There was something there… not love, exactly. Love had more passion. Less sadness to it.

What these two shared, Neko thought she understood more than she could understand love. They shared a bond that went deeper than that. It was not that they desired one another's company; simply that they knew and accepted that it was the only company they would always have. With a jolt, Neko realized that this was; perhaps; why C.C. hated her so much. Why C.C. was jealous. Until Neko had come along, Lelouch and C.C. would have been the only people in the world who would live together. Yes, it was a bond different from love. And it was a bond even harder to break.

"Perform a few miracles." Lelouch continued, letting his hand fall from C.C.'s face and walking onwards. The ice formed back over C.C.'s eyes, and she turned back to continue glaring at Neko. But Neko could not bring herself to glare back at C.C.; a fact that seemed to surprise the green-haired woman. For Neko had begun to understand what she had intruded upon, "Make them believe that you can do what you say they do. Get them comfortable with your presence. Maybe save a few of their lives; make sure they are all indebted to you." The movement was sudden; Neko's new violet eyes barely managed to move to him before he was facing her, his face alight with the exhilaration of the game, "Prepare them for my return."

Neko nodded. This was something else she understood; this eagerness in his voice. She, too, was excited for the day that Zero returned to power. The day that she could become just another Black Knight; nothing more than Zero's guardian. The day that she could stop plotting to get him in once more, and start plotting to change the world in her own way.

"And if she fails?" C.C. asked, her voice bitter.

Lelouch's lips twisted up at the corner; a smirk that mirrored Neko's exactly.

"Stain can't fail." They whispered in unison.


End file.
